Dynamo offensive disaster at San Jose

It’s been 24 hours since that debacle of a peformance ended, and I hoped sleeping on it for a night would soften the blow. Unfortunately, the 2-1 Dynamo loss to the Earthquakes is just as unsatisfying today as it was when it first happened.

The second San Jose goal, which put the Earthquakes up by two and proved to be the game-winner, resulted from an oddly poor decision by Bobby Boswell to back away from a weak DeRosario pass to him. The indecision (or incorrect decision) allowed Ivan Guerrero to leisurely pick off the ball in front of a retreating Boswell and behind a surprised Dynamo defense. Still, the Dynamo defense was not the source of the ugliness.

Robinson was playing quite well before he left in the second half due to injury. Barrett and Mulrooney did pretty well, and even Boswell largely seemed pretty well positioned until his late-game gaffe.

No, the problem was the attack again. Regardless of Houston’s two-game winning streak going into this game, the Dynamo offense has simply been anemic. The 10 goals Houston has marked up in 10 games is honestly flattering to the quality of their offensive power this season. Several of these goals have been lucky or trashy; nothing wrong with that, but there’s a real sense that this luck simply cannot continue long-term into the 2008 season. Ironically, Houston’s one goal in this loss to the expansion team was a real quality play, a rarity this season.

Brian Ching scored a nice goal reminiscent of the old days, but was otherwise invisible again. Franco Caraccio again showed no athleticism, speed, or shooting ability. He did show desire to beat defenders on the dribble, but nowhere close to the skill to pull it off. Substitute Kyle Brown, coming in for the ineffective Caraccio, looked sluggish, and did not capitalize on a couple of very good opportunities handed to him.

Dwayne DeRosario played decent ball in stretches, but nowhere near the DeRo quality we need to win games in the absence of skill elsewhere on the field. Ricardo Clark actually did have a good game, and showed himself the best, most confident man with a ball at his feet on the field for Houston. Stuart Holden and Brian Mullan didn’t have notable games, neither with much to show in terms of creating good opportunities, hitting remarkable crosses, or getting threatening shots off.

Until the 75th minute this game was frustrating to watch, as the Dynamo hurled an incessant volley long balls over the top, again just hoping Ching, Caraccio, or Brown would make something magical happen. Nobody seems to be able to dribble well enough to beat a single defender. Even the free kicks aren’t good enough to make it over defensive walls. Really, this offense now has barely the sophistication of a high school team.

And not to let the defenders completely off the hook, remember that they, too, must be participants in the attack as well–so blame can go all around.

For most of this game, I wondered what piece was missing. After all, the most of the team’s quality players who’ve been the keystones over the last year were in the game: Ching, DeRosario, Clark, Mullan, Robinson (for a while), Mulrooney, Holden, Onstad. What was missing?

The answer is Brad Davis. When he came into the game, it was as though the old magic returned. Even from the right side of midfield, he was routinely involved in the play for his 15 minutes, and the rest of the squad finally seemed to show some energy. Davis launched the precisely-launched cross that hit Ching in just the right spot for him to finish off a goal past the marking Ryan Cochrane.

So here’s one to Brad Davis: it wasn’t enough tonight to get the Dynamo points, but it gave a parting sign of hope to an otherwise useless team attack.